Labour MP says she faces racist abuse almost every day

November 03, 2024
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn with former Southampton Test MP Alan Whitehead (left) and Satvir Kaur (right) during a visit to a shopping arcade in Southampton. PA.

According to a Labour MP, she encounters "extreme" racism and other forms of abuse virtually daily.

Since being elected MP for Southampton Test in July, Satvir Kaur, who has held public office since 2011, claimed that the abuse has increased.

When she led Southampton City Council from 2022 to 2023, she became the first Sikh woman to hold a local government position in the United Kingdom.

It was put to Ms Kaur on BBC Radio Solent that women in politics receive a lot of abuse, and she said: “It’s been extreme, it’s kind of more than I thought.

“You always get it when you’re kind of in the public eye and being a politician – suddenly somehow you become sub-human when all you’re really trying to do is make a positive difference to people’s lives.

“So I got it to a certain extent when I was a councillor and leader of the council, but I feel as though, since I’ve become an MP – especially online – I feel as though I’ve attracted all of the misogynists, all of the racists, and all of the haters out there.”

Actually it just encourages me more to do what I'm doing

Southampton Test Labour MP Satvir Kaur

She added that she receives racist abuse “constantly, almost on an daily basis”.

“Actually it just encourages me more to do what I’m doing, because I want other people from areas of deprivation, and brown girls, to feel that, if I can do it, they can do it,” she said.

The MP said she tries to ignore the vitriol and blocks abusive comments on her social media, but she does occasionally “bite”.

“I don’t want to spread hate, and there’s enough hate out there,” she told BBC Radio Solent presenter Louisa Hannan.

Hate crime is an issue often flagged by her constituents on the doorstep, Ms Kaur said.

In her maiden speech, she told Parliament she is the daughter of a market trader and grew up in inner-city Southampton on free school meals.

Ms Kaur succeeded Labour’s Alan Whitehead as the MP for Southampton Test. He had held the post for 27 years.